Problem-Based Unit

Attack Mode: What's Specific about Remedies for English Language Learners?

You have been accepted into a California state government internship program, and have been assigned to the office of legal affairs with Governor Gray Davis. The day that you arrive, you find the office abuzz, as pretrial motions have been placed in a major education lawsuit against the state. The State, along with the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, the State Department of Education and the Superintendent of Public Instruction have been named in a class action lawsuit, Williams v. the State of California, filed by a coalition of civil rights organizations, public interest law groups and private law firms. According to their website, www.decentschools.org, "The suit charges that the State and its agencies have denied thousands of California children their fundamental right to an education under the California Constitution by failing to give them the basic tools necessary for that education."

You are given a desk in the office of one of the staff attorneys who is asked to prepare for deposing one of the witnesses for the plaintiffs, one Kenji Hakuta, a professor of education at Stanford University. Sitting on your desk is a copy of his expert report that addresses how English language learners are particularly under-served by schools. Click here for Hakuta's report. His testimony relies especially on a report by Patricia Gandara and Russell Rumberger of the University of California. You are also given a copy of the Gandara and Rumberger report. Attached to these reports is a note to you: "Welcome to your new assignment! We're preparing to depose on Hakuta on February 12. We need to get as many questions as possible to ask him that would expose any flaws in the argument or evidence that could be used to destroy his credibility as a witness. Please come up with as many lines of questioning as you can, highlighting especially the weaknesses in the report. Chip away especially at the issue of whether the issues of poverty and English language learners is practically separable. I want something that is less than 5 pages long."